Peccadilloes in Nippon and in Nipponese with a Quixotic Perspective. Coming at you from Yokohama, near Tokyo.

February 13, 2007

Racial Japan Stuff

Eyebrow-arching news. Not only is Animax getting an American anime, but it is none other than the infamous, controversial, critically-praised The Boondocks. I imagine it has something to do with The Boondocks being a Sony property. There is no doubt that this is why Soul'd Out is doing the voice dubbing to localize it into Japanese. I just saw the advertisement myself, and the katakana-ized n-word jumped out at me. The word that makes Al Sharpton and others bristle when they talk about the show. I wonder how this will have an effect on the local language. We've recently seen the word being used, and rather insensitvely, by the Gaijin Hanzai Ura File, so I imagine this might make matters worse. But maybe it will have the opposite effect and open some eyes over here.詳しく (details in Japanese).

Also,this story may have blipped on your radar. Basically, a school was looking for an English teacher, and only a stereotypical foreigner would do. Today, it was actually on the news, much to my suprise. I was with my girlfriend's family. They all laughed and said how stupid the request was. The news, and the reaction by native Japanese, made me hopeful for the future.